Data Sets - HUD USER - Policy Development and Research's Information Service

Data from the U.S. Postal Service indicate that, in the second quarter of 2009, the typical U.S. metropolitan area experienced essentially no change (0.01 percentage points) in the residential vacancy rate from the previous quarter, but saw an increase of 0.2 percentage points in the business vacancy rate. From the second quarter of 2008, USPS data indicate an increase of 0.04 percentage points and 0.7 percentage points, respectively.

Trends in the data for particular metropolitan areas often strongly diverge from the national trend. The apparent increase in the residential vacancy rate in the past quarter exceeds 0.6 percentage points in Lima, OH, Longview, WA, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ, and Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ. On the other hand, the Postal Service data shows reductions of more than 0.4 percentage points in New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA, Fairbanks, AK, and Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL in the same quarter.

Similarly, according to the USPS, business vacancy rates rose more than 1.7 percentage points in Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ and Boulder, CO in the past quarter but actually fell by more than 0.8 percentage points in Carson City, NV; Las Vegas-Paradise, NV; Odessa, TX; Monroe, LA; and Lawton, OK.

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Metropolitan Area Vacancy Reports are available on the HUDUSER website at http://www.huduser.org/datasets/metro.html.

Beginning in February 2008, HUD has made USPS residential and business vacancy information available at the census tract level. Combined residential and business vacancy information has been available since December 2005. Although HUD is not aware of errors in these data, it is the USPS that is responsible for collecting this data, and while we are not aware of errors or omissions at this time, HUD can not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented in this context. For explanations of USPS data definitions, see http://www.huduser.org/datasets/usps.html and for more information on data quality and related issues, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) at http://www.huduser.org/intercept.asp?loc=/datasets/usps/FAQ.pdf. If you are aware of any discrepancies contained within these reports, please contact Mark Shroder or Jon Sperling.